Sunday, March 25, 2012

Here i am at 3 am awake again for a few hours already after a 2h overnight sleep ;)

yesterday was a far from delightful day for me and probably the sum of several things that didn't work very well.
Race morning was cold like anticipated and there was some rain while traveling to T1. But the forecast really promised a decent day for racing, given how things where during the week it turned out to be an awesome day.

The swim Started at night, i really think this was bad organization, i mean how can we spot a buoy 1km away in the dark? its also true that its the same to everyone but obviously there's a lead kayak for the front packs, really poor organization there in my opinion, so getting to the first buoy was a sacrifice, i was in a group of 3 or 4 and we got lost somewhere and if it wasn't a boat with a flashlight that came to us pointing the way we would still be swimming ;)
i don't know how much time i lost there but when we got back to the right direction i was in a back of the group. i really didn't feel strong in the water like i have been feeling during the winter, i had a sluggish stroke but it was enough to stay in that group, with some light it was easier of course to spot the very few buoys that where in the course, i managed to stay in the group till the very end. and ended up leaving the water with the usual suspects, given that i wasn't feeling perfect that was good.

I lost some time in T1 but managed to bridge a gap to the big pack that formed after the swim easily. good bikers like Shortis, Anderson, Aernouts, among several others where there so i only needed to hang with them. i felt decent legs and the pace was within my "limits". i even managed to push the group for several kms, witch wasn't a good idea but everything looked alright, at the turn around we where roughly 8 9 min behind the huge lead pack and that looked good also. Coming back in slight downhill everything was going fine and i really started to think i was doing well on the day. nutrition was coming along perfectly even with several aidstations missed. But at around 130km everything went backwards, really, and all happened very fast, i was first struggling to stay in the group and then dropped with no power on the legs, yes i have experienced this in another races like Frankfurt last year but this was a whole different game. i still tried to keep distance to the group and did so for a long time but i was trashed and coming back was really painful. the bonus of the day was that i led Mr Bennet to T2 ;) and we actually had a chat while changing at transition.
i was really feeling no energy and started running just to finish the darn thing, there was not much fight about. It was all about patience to let the kms pass. couple toilet stop without any rush whatsoever not much to say other after passing half marathon i started naturally running faster and faster without much effort and did quite few kms under 4 min/km, i really don't understand why this happened... i finished 22nd under 9h whohoo ;)

Ok so definitely not a good day, leading to this race i was sure that i have seen fitter days, the build up to the race wasn't good and january/half february where bad months after being sick at the end of the year but i sure was fit enough to have a go tackle a VERY strong field. I had a very tough week particularly with the time difference and barely slept decently other than the first day i arrived, it got worse and worse during the week to the point where i only slept 2h in the nights before the race, and im sure that really didn't helped here. tough i will not make an escuse out of it...

But i sure am disappointed from coming half way through the world to make not such a good impression...

Sunday, March 18, 2012

As i wait for the flight i wanted to have an overview of what happened in valencia.

The organization was splendid but i really didnt like the bike course...

The swim was good, the water was cold so i only warmed up outside, even so and in line with what has been happening in the pool i swam well, at the start the marshals said they would give an 1 minute to start call but all of the sudden everything started while i was mooving around to stay warm, with this i had to go through the field and man there are some unsortmanship around there, i was grabed in the hankles a good 5 times and pulled back, cmon, having a kick on the face or punch is part of the deal but this is too much. midway everything got smother and besides a small navigation problem from the 2 guys ahead of me that made us loose a few seconds everything was cool, like the water ;) i got out around 1:30 from the big first group with considering wh was there made me happy with the swim.

I settled to a very fast pace at the begining of the bike since i had legs to do that, the first few kms where smooth and everything was FLAT with 40 min or so i caught to a 10 or so group that remained stable until the wind picked up coming back, it was a loop with terrible surface and with so may 90 degree corners in the reservoir that it was insane with the wind the group splited and i was left alone in the middle. i renenber perfectly going at 300W while my speed was just above 20km per hour, it was insane. All the holes and vibration broke my bottle holder and by the last third of the ride my saddle clamp came loose i needed to ride seated the whole way or i would probably loose de saddle, with that many 90 degree corners and bad pavment it was a bit tortourous to make it worse the rear brake caliper rotated with a pothole \ vibration and started braking my wheel, something i only noticed after the race since with an aero helmet you cant hear much. with 15km to go i was caught by Santamaria group and tried to hang with them. something that was requiring me more than 300W at he end of the bike, i could only think how strong they where or probably it was the brake rubing the wheel, and those 3 extra kms of course (93) in head wind seemed like an ethernity :)

heading to the run i started well, just a bit behing santamaria but soon enough at the end of the 1st (of 3) lap i faded, i kept going till half way but i felt like i wasnt going to do well and honestely not being my objective and since the $ only went 5 deep i slowed down to finish with 4;17 in a flat but far from fat course. I believe if everything went wel i would have a shot at the prize money but really dont care. Later, when i was already in lisbon i found that i was disqualified and i really dont know why and i didnt have any penaly whatsoever but in all truth i dont care, it was a good workout and i enjoyed my swim and bike fitness despite lots of mechanical problems.

No i didnt race Abu dhabi triathlon, altough i really wouldnt mind. I am in abu dabhi waiting for the next flight to melbourne.
To sum this off, its a true mess this trip, simply put, i was charged 2 times for my bike box in lisbon and in london, the caotic lisbon airport made me loose the original flight with several problem like computers that dont work, lines and lines to get oversized packs to be delivered and security guards that really don give a S^& about anything and just want thir paycheck at the end of the month. had to buy a new ticket in time to catch the london-Abu dabhi flight, lost my wallet in london while rushing to make a flight tranfer and had to look for it in the airport with the second flight just leaving and in risk of loosing another flight to kill the day i was asked to pay 300 pounds for my bike box when they actually conrfmed that they no clue where bike and pack was!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????, its just insane and to be honest i was absolutely overwhelmed with all this. But i got to abu dabhi in the original flight that was late but had he chance to sleep a good few hours and have a short run to clear my mind, inevetably my run was so bad that i really just wanted to walk :(

But im better now, nothing can go worse but i do hope that all my stuff arrives in melbourne, they had almost 24 hours to fix this since its the time between flights.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

leading to australia,
past weekend report is still to come but this week has been really busy with the store move, ill try to report tomorrow ;)
&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/embedded/12948622"&amp;amp;gt;estrada de campo, porto alto&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;br/&amp;amp;gt;
&amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/?location=Oeiras"&amp;amp;gt;Find more Bike Ride in Oeiras&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;
&lt;/p&gt;Find more Bike Ride in Oeiras

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Im driving with Vanessa to Valencia for my first triathlon of 2012!!! an half ironman that promises to have a very competetive field. looking forward to it.
Last weeks have been good for me, except that i still suffer from that small accident earlier in the year. my chest still burns like hell but again i have nothing to do other than wait for it to disappear.
Other than that small important fact, i have been putting together some good workouts and with the small relief i had from the chest swimming was a more satisfying experience ;)
so, not much to report, work, workouts, work, workouts and sleep/eat somewhere in the middle. this is defenetely a good test leading to australia....